Trick question of the day???

[MajaPalra]

It seems I was unclear so I'll try again.
The scenario I'm imagining is this.
An MDer is at the beach, standing in water
that is over waste high -- not too deep
if using Big Blue, but maybe 3 to 4 feet deep
if using an Excalibur. A target is registering
and let's say it's > 12" under foot.
I was thinking it would be difficult,
if not impossible, to dig a hole that deep
to retrieve a target.

To phrase this as a question: How deep
under foot could an MDer expect to retrieve
a target when standing in several feet
of water with constant waves going by?

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

I've never done that but I have done it in a foot of water and I would expect it to be about the same thing. And it's a major bee-yatch. You have to work it, work it, work it. And there IS "sinkage". It depends on the object, your scoop, the wave action, the composition of the sand, etc.

 

[beachguy777]

Ah, ha. Now I dig you dadio. (That's just an old saying from the fifties). G O O D question!!! I've been having the same problem with that, the old sand caving in on you routine. Well..., I just read a page in a book I'm reading called, The Beach Hunters Guide.(I bought it from Kellyco) and one of the guys in there says: Take a 5 gallon paint bucket, or some kind of heavy bucket that size and cut the bottom out, reinforce it with a band of metal and rivots, then stick the bottomless bucket over the target and push down hard to kind of seat it in the sand. Then, he says, you can dig inside the bucket and the sand won't cave it. I havn't tried it yet but it might work. There's probably other ways to do this, but that's a very important quesion, that anyone doing water work would have to deal with. (I'll bet Mike knows the answer to that one) and one more thing, Mike just told me about a forum on this web site that's a beach forum. I never bothered to look further in the different kinds of forums, and sure enough it's there. I'm gonna start reading it because it deals specifically with beach hunting.

 

[beachguy777]

You know what Mike, your sooooooo... right on that one. I've only just begun to dig in the water, but your so right. It'll fight you all the way, especially when the waves keep coming in. That same book I was reading, the Beach Hunters Guide, another guy says just reach down in the hole and try and grab the target, but gee whiz. Sounds like a needle in a hay stack to me. That little target amongst swirlling water and sand, but he says he sometimes has success with it. OK, but I'll bet theres a more sure way. Not, sure about this, but what about a slanted screen setup with a catching area where you could scooup boucoup shovels of wet sand into it and let the water rinse the sand through the screen leaving the possible target in the catching area, (probably a screen setup area as well) probably bigger mesh. Not a totally original idea, and somewhat of a hassell but, maybe it would work. I might try and build one.